Best Practices for Quality Management in the Telecommunications Industry ENSE627/ENPM647 Spring 2004 Guangming Zhang Graciela Piedras Rowin Andruscavage

Introduction: Information & Telecommunications Technologies

Scope

Case Study (fodder) ●Wired Telephone system evolution ●operator switchboard ●circuit switched analog (PSTN/POTS) ●circuit switched digital (PBX, ADPCM backbone) ●packet switched, connection-oriented vs. connectionless (ISDN, FDDI, ATM, *DSL... ) –applications: Internet, VoIP, SIP, VTC ●Mobile Telephone system evolution ( admap_final.pdf) ●1G Analog ●2G Digital (TDMA, PDC, GSM, CDMA) ●2.5G Packet Digital (GPRS, EDGE, CDMA2000) ●3G High-Speed Digital (WCDMA) ●4G Seamless mobility between fixed wire & WLAN

Case Study (fodder) ●Networks (refer to OSI model) ●Building networks –Cabling: BNC, CAT5, fiber –Ethernet: 10BT, 100TX, 1000-T –Protocols: IPv4, IPv6 –Serial peripherals: RS232, USB, Firewire ●ISM band wireless networks –WiFi WLAN: b/a/g –IrDA, Bluetooth, WUSB

Case Study (fodder) ●Government steering & regulatory commissions: NTIA, FCC, FTC... ●Standardization bodies: ETSI, ITU, ANSI ●Service networks: Sprint, AT&T, Baby Bells ●Data networks: Metricom Ricochet ●Satellite networks: Iridium, GlobalStar, InmarSat, Teledesic

Baldrige Criteria Framework ●Telecom organization can itself be network- centric* –* make heavy use information & communication technology systems in structure and operations of the business. –(currently being defined by DoD to streamline operations by setting up systems of sensors -- decision makers – effectors. Characterized by moving “power to the edge”, flattening the chain of command & empowering agents to make tactical decisions, freeing up the operational control center to make more strategic decisions)

Organizational Profile ●Gov't regulation, resource mgmt (decades to institute change) ●Industry consortiums, standards bodies (decades to change) ●Service providers ●Manufacturers ●Software / systems integrators

Org Profile: Environment

Org Profile: Relationships

Org Profile: Challenges ●Highly competitive & fast paced ●Regulatory environment ●Interoperability ●Backwards compatibility w/ legacy systems ●Large deployed base makes for expensive system-wide upgrades ●Tackling resistance to change

1. Leadership ●Common qualities, business vs. technical leadership ●Bios

2. Strategic Planning ●R&D technology => service deployment ●Funding, VC ●Risk management

3. Customer & Market Focus ●CRM databases ●Working together teams ●Identify gaps in market ●Timing (bluetooth vs. WLAN, Iridium vs. GSM networks)

4. Measurement, Analysis, and Knowledge Management ●Network centric operations hub –Centralized IT system – knowledge databases,

5. Human Resource Focus ●Organization –Matrixed between functional & IPT leads –Functional spheres of expertise mapped to processes; should overlap with others ●Communications tools –Human nodes are decision makers in net centric operations – , PIM collaboration, IM, & other infrastructure ●Management & Technical Proficiency –Representation in industrial consortiums, conferences

6. Process Management ●Online configuration-controlled process docs ●Store and employ best practices ●Change board ●Continuous improvement ●Example: Standards process (RFC, sample implementation, ratification, test suite) ●Example: CMMI continuous improvement of regulations, standards, deployed hardware, software updates

7. Business Results ●standard/proprietary format acceptance, adaptation, rejection ●market growth / market share ●trouble tickets, incompatibility reports ●adherence to evolution plan

Extra Issues: Reliability ●OSI model - different quality goals distributed between different levels of communications stack: –Physical layer: high S/N ratio – need quality components –Link layer: low bit error rate via encoding –Network layer: quality of service (QoS) guarantees –Transport layer: error detection & recovery

Extra Issues: Security ●Goal: Competitiveness – similar to quality, different means (also for privacy) ●Encryption regulations, specifications, export restrictions

Conclusion ●Standards driven ●Breaking down resistance to change ●Application to future transitions: –DRM, decentralized distributed ad-hoc networking (JTRS), p2p applications, info mgmt infrastructure (semantic web, discovery, etc.)

Links / Bibliography

Questions